The Centre for Policy Research is organising a talk on Climate Litigation in the United States by Professor Rob Verchick, a 2012-2013 Fulbright-Nehru Research Scholar, on 28 September 2012. This seminar is jointly organized by the Group of International Lawyers in Delhi (GUILD), anchored at CPR and the Climate Initiative, CPR.
Tort law generally addresses routine risks, those risks associated with activities like driving a car, using a product, or going to the hospital. But in modern society millions are exposed to broader and more extraordinary risks, including those posed by climate change. In the United States the federal courts have grappled with three separate cases involving tort claims against industry for damages arising from climate change. One went to the Supreme Court. Lawyers in other countries, including India, have begun considering theories of tort-based climate litigation as well. Such efforts supplement a trend in creative climate lawyering that involves claims of human rights violations and appeals to the public trust. How promising is tort-based climate litigation, or for that matter, other aspects of this trend? Is tort law an appropriate tool for addressing the broad and extraordinary risks of global warming? How might tort-based claims affect our understanding of climate change risk? How might climate change affect our understanding of tort principles?
Speaker’s Biography: Rob Verchick is a 2012-2013 Fulbright-Nehru Research Scholar working in New Delhi and affiliated with the Centre for Policy Research. He holds the Gauthier-St. Martin Chair in Environmental Law at Loyola University New Orleans. He recently served in the Obama administration as Deputy Associate Administrator for Policy at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In that role he helped develop climate adaptation policy for the EPA and served on President Obama’s Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force. Professor Verchick’s scholarly writing focuses on environmental regulation, climate change adaptation, and the developing field of disaster law. His work has appeared in many venues, including the California Law Review, the Southern California Law Review, and the environmental law journals at Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley. His newest book, Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World (Harvard University Press, 2010) was listed as a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of 2010 by the American Library Association.
